For those who have to get GTA V the moment it's released, today's your lucky day - the game is officially available for pre-order at the Rockstar Warehouse (plus a bonus Kifflom t-shirt!) and several online retailers in the US and UK. The game is going for $59.99/£44.99.

Head over to the Rockstar Newswire to see a full list of retailers. You can also download the new artwork pictured above, "Beachy Weather," in different sizes at the Rockstar Downloads page.

Earlier this week, Rockstar commented that the trailer was delayed due to power outages in their NYC headquarters as a result of Hurricane Sandy. The office is back up to full speed, and ready for a month of GTA V onslaught, starting with the Game Informer article coming on November 8. What are you hoping the Game Informer issue and second trailer will reveal about GTA V?

From Today until the 9th of November (GMT), Steam have slashed 75% off Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition as well as the regular edition of Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. A somewhat support push as the Grand Theft Auto V Game Informer Issue will be released before this deal ends!

In a surprising twist, lifestyle and entertainment magazine Short List are holding a competition to give people the chance of winning the game upon release as well as all the pre-order photo viewers, oh and yeah, they also had this to show off:

The long wait is over at last. With the December issue, Grand Theft Auto V fans can pore over every detail we could get about Rockstar Games' highly anticipated sequel. Over the course of 18 pages (our biggest cover story yet!), we introduce the three main protagonists, discuss the groundbreaking way you use them, and explore the reimagined Los Santos – the biggest open world Rockstar has created to date. The massive feature also divulges and dissects many more aspects of the game fans won't want to miss.

Here's an additional piece of art featuring one of our three protagonists:

THE CHARACTERS

From Left to Right: Franklin, Trevor and Michael get ready for a job.

There's a fundamental change in the core design of Grand Theft Auto V - and it's something to get excited about.

Players can now switch between three members of a crew at the press of a button, with each character being very distinct and representing different types of crime in the city of Los Santos. Here's a quick look at who we'll be playing as:

Franklin - The youngest protagonist in V, Franklin's a hustler who works as a repo-man for a shady Armenian luxury car dealership who sells cars to people who can't afford them. He's fit, ambitious and described as the most capable member of the crew. Expect Franklin to get down and dirty when appropriate.

Trevor - A former military pilot and recreational drug user who is the embodiment of chaos. He represents the "do what you want" approach many players loved about past games in the series. In one scene that the GI guys saw, he douses a truck with gasoline before setting it aflame with a Zippo. Pure mayhem is his end-game.

Michael - A retired bank-robber, living a lavish lifestyle in an area known as Rockford Hills thanks to a deal he made with the FIB that placed him in witness protection. He lives with his wife, Amanda, who he doesn't like, and his teenage children, Tracy and Jimmy, who he doesn't understand. You'll be living the high-life with Michael, but don't expect it to be too welcoming.

How it Works:

Players can assume the role of any protagonist on the fly, in both free-roam and in missions, providing that all characters are present on the mission you are attempting. As a player, you are prompted as to when to change characters in a mission, but it is still entirely up to you.

In the mission GameInformer previewed, each character worked together: Trevor flew the chopper, Michael rappelled down the side of a building before crashing through a window and storming the place, while Franklin stood at a sniper post and terminated threats as they arose. Being able to switch between each character lets the player dynamically control how the mission takes place.

Each protagonist has different styles and abilities, though Rockstar haven't touched on this any further just yet.

THE LOCATION

GameInformer didn't cover too much about the locale that we didn't already know, but it's said to be larger than the combination of the maps of Red Dead Redemption, GTA IV and San Andreas. In other words, it's pretty large.

The City of Los Santos and its Surroundings:

Rockstar have decided to return to San Andreas, but instead of having multiple cities this time, they've drawn the line and have managed to create a rendition of Los Angeles that truly does the city justice. Rather than making smaller "sketchlike cities," Los Santos now offers the full-package in a way it never did previously.

Rockstar took over a 250,000 photos when researching the location, as well as utilizing census data to get the most accurate depiction of Los Angeles possible.

Mt. Chiliad is back and it's surrounded by thick wilderness that stretches from a desolate desert to wine country. Los Santos is still the epicenter of the game, both geographically and culturally speaking. There's also a military base hidden somewhere out there, so expect to break into that at some point.

There's a lot of new interiors as well, with particular emphasis on the description of a convenience store named 24/7 - albeit only for the sake of explanation. In the scheme of things, the 24-7 is a small part of the world, yet it is fully detailed, all the way down to the cigarette packets and magazines on the shelf.

THE VEHICLES

There's no exhaustive list of specific vehicles yet. What we do know is how many vehicle types there are: in addition to all the cars, trucks, motorbikes and helicopters we all love, look out for BMX's, Mountain Bikes, Road Bikes, Planes, ATV's and Jet Ski's to name only a few.

Many vehicles are open from the start of the game - for example, due to Trevor's ex-profession as a pilot we won't have to worry about going through flight school and all the planes will be open from the very beginning. Sounds fun, right?

GTA V apparently has more vehicles than any other GTA game to date, which is an awful lot.

BULLET POINTS

There's a lot of new stuff on offer in the GI article that doesn't necessarily relate to any of the above categories, I'll sum it up quickly for you:

There are a lot of 'Three Leaf Clover' type heists in the game.

Unfortunately, the in-depth character customization seen in San Andreas has been left out again.

Tennis, yoga, triathlons, base-jumping and a fully-formed game of golf are just some examples of mini-games you'll be playing.

A selection of characters from IV and its Episodes are said to return but Niko won't be one of them.

Property isn't back, but there's apparently plenty more to buy than there was in previous games, though what these are remains unknown.

You can have casual encounters with NPC's of the world, this includes simple things like flipping the bird or having a chat.

NPC's are much more lively, and a lot of them are fully mo-capped for added realism.

Red Dead Redemption-esque dynamic missions return: this could include anything from muggings to hitch-hiker's, and there's even one which involves two abandoned cars and a load of dead people (No Country For Old Men style).

Your phone can access the internet now.

Like IV, there isn't any celebrity voice-talent among the main characters.

GameInformer is available now digitally if you wish to know much, much more.

As we move into the promotional stage for Grand Theft Auto V, it's good to hear what Dan Houser has to say every now and then. Recently the New York Times published an article where they had a Q&A session with the man where he explains what he thinks about the genre, how powerful he thinks Open World Games can truly be and reveal some interesting rules such as the following:

Q. The closest thing to Grand Theft Auto I can think of that someone is doing in a different medium is the work of David Simon, who has tried to capture cities, in “The Wire” but even more so in “Treme.” It’s quite different, but TV is similar in the sense that people spend 30, 40 hours with a show.

A. I haven’t seen “Treme.” I never even saw “The Wire.” One of my weird disciplines is that I don’t really watch a lot of those shows, if they relate to what we do. I only watched a tiny bit of “The Sopranos.” No “Boardwalk Empire.” No “Breaking Bad.” Wherever it’s too close to crime, gangster, underbelly fiction, and it’s supercontemporary, I decided, for professional reasons, I have to avoid it.